Once In A Blue Moon
by The Iman Lestrange
Summary: Ch. 1. Jacob Black thought he could do without imprinting - until he imprints on Bella Swan. His world can't be more perfect. Except for the tiny fact that Laurent didn't drag out the conversation in the meadow and now, Bella is a vampire. New Moon AU.


(**Disclaimer**: I own absolutely nothing here. Everything you recognize – which would be everything, with the exception of the plot – belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I'm only playing around in her sandbox until I get my own ideas about vampires and werewolves straight and mold it into something as phenomenal as this series.)

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PROLOGUE

**MOONRISE**

The filthy bloodsucker.

A fury unlike anything else he has known rips through him as he watches the interaction between Bella and the bloodsucker, through the thickness of the trees. Beside him, his brothers shift restlessly, similarly discomfited with the bloodsucker and his nearness. Its scent – like poisoned sugar, so sweet and saccharine that it quite literally burned – drenches the air, pollutes each breath, makes them think twice about wanting to inhale. The very sight of it makes their wolf instincts to roar to the surface, makes their hind legs to tense in preparation for a leap, makes them bare their teeth. A mutual growl – blended together like the buzz of furious hornets, but at the same time distinct to each of them – vibrates deep from in their chests.

Each of the wolves – Sam, their Alpha, Paul and Jared, Embry and himself – cannot wait until they are able to hunt down and tear apart the bloodsucking fiend that's been hunting and killing on their lands.

However, their unrest isn't for the same reason as his. Or, at least, not _completely_ for the same reason. He is just as furious they are that this is bloodsucker – or one of the bloodsuckers, for there isn't telling how many of these things there could be around at one time – has broken the treaty, has been murdering and terrorizing their people and the people of Forks. But, on a deeper level, he is more furious that this bloodsucker is daring to be this close to Bella. To be talking with her, to be looking at her, to be anywhere near her – to be interacting with her as if it is human.

This makes him the most angry.

He can now see what his dad meant, what Sam and Harry and old Quil meant about the Cullens. For all that they looked human, acted human – they weren't. And, the fact that they were tricking innocent humans – humans like Bella – into thinking that they were was almost as unforgivable as hunting them down and killing them.

The bloodsucker shifts his stance and he finds himself ready to spring at him, in return, when –

_Not yet, Jake._ Sam commands, a warning growl accompanying the words spoken over their mental connection.

_What? Why not?_ Jacob snaps back. His own growl is a blend of angry and anxious. _The bloodsucker is about to_ –

_I can see that_, Sam interrupts, _but we have to wait_.

_Wait for what?_ The shouts – for, Jacob isn't the only who responds to this – echo across their link thunderously.

_Why not rip the fucking thing to shreds while its distracted_ – Paul, his volatile temper being put to good use for once, as he channels in into the focus and energy needed to take down this bloodsucker.

_Maybe Sam is right, maybe we should hold of for a minute_ – Jared, his hesitance giving away to slight fear, with the act of hunting down and killing a vampire moving out of the realm of theory and swiftly morphing into reality.

_It's gonna kill Bella, you know they move faster than lightening_ – Embry, more concerned with a human life than the precision and perfection of a kill.

_You cannot be serious, we can't just wait until it lunges at Bella and rips her throat out_ – Jacob, the thought of that twice-damned bloodsucker laying even one unnaturally pale finger on Bella sending a thrill of fear and fury rocketing through him.

_We aren't going to let it kill her_, Sam declares, his voice rising volumes above the uproar thundering throughout their minds. _That is, if it's going to kill her at all. This one could be one of the "good" ones – if there really is such a thing – and it might be one of their friends. Bella sure looks like she knows it – _

_Fuck whether or not she knows it, Sam! _

Jacob and Paul are united in something for once, although not wholly and completely. Paul just wants to take the bloodsucker down. Jacob, however, wants to take the bloodsucker down, too – but, only so that it won't hurt Bella. They have the same goal, but different motives. The only thing that is holding them back is Sam, their Alpha.

_It's gotta be the one of the ones that is hunting down humans, Sam, we can't let it get Bella to _– Embry jumps in, his worry increasing with each moment.

_What the fuck are we waiting for, man_ – Paul shouts furiously, his paws clawing at the soft forest floor restlessly – _a official statement saying that it's gonna kill her? It just said it's hunting_ –

_We have to wait!_ Sam roars. His is thick with the authority of an Alpha, it leaves no room for argument. _We are on Cullen land and if we attack one of theirs without cause, it would be the same as one of them attacking us without cause. I'm not going to break a decades-old treaty and start a war over a misunderstanding, alright!_

_I'm with Paul, Sam_ – Even in the middle of an crisis, Jacob can't help but marvel how strange those words sound in his mind – _it's hunting and it's hunting her! We have to_ –

Time seems to slow to a near-stop as Bella takes a nervous step back from the bloodsucker and looks around, for an escape, for a way out. Her eyes dart around wildly, never resting on particular place in the wall of trees that surround her –

Until she seems to look directly into the thicket of trees where Jacob and his pack lie in wait.

Somehow, inexplicably, despite the distance, despite branches and leaves and trees – somehow, her chocolate-brown eyes fuse with his own impossibly dark eyes, and _something happens_.

Where it had seemed to slow to a snail's pace, time has now ceased to exist at all. The concept of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries – it all has no meaning, no structure, no shape, no form. There is nothing but this moment. The one moment where everything seems to fall into place and align.

Everything around Jacob, everything about Jacob – it all melts into burning warmth, a glow that could rival the heat from the rays of the sun that so sporadically shows its face in this corner of the world.

There is nothing but the warmth, the all-encompassing glow that is so powerful and so moving that everything about him ceases to be. Everything, everything, everything – the love he has for his parents, his beloved father and his sorely missed mother; the love he has for his distant sisters; the love and loyalty for his newfound brothers, his pack; the hatred he has for bloodsuckers, especially the one that stands only feet away in the open meadow; his small but comfortable house; his name; his very self; the moon, the stars, the sky.

All of it has no meaning, none of it no longer has any connection to the universe which he now revolves in.

None of it means as much as this, none of it connects as strongly as this, none of it exists anywhere in the sphere of this universe –

This is everything, this is the only connection he needs, this is the only universe he can exist in as a whole and complete being –

Bella is everything, Bella connects him, Bella is the centering point of his universe –

Bella is the only thing that holds him to here and now.

_Bella, Bella, Bella_…

**~:~:~:~:~**

She knows there is no point. No point whatsoever in looking for a way out, no point in trying to find gap in the circle of trees where she could dash off and away from this predicament she has found herself in. If by some insane stroke of luck she found myself able to slip past Laurent and make a run for it, there would still be no use. In the time it would take to blink her eyes, he would have caught up with her and by then, she was certain that he would no longer be in the mood for conversation.

She is completely and totally trapped. There is no way out.

But, that does not stop Bella from desperately searching.

Her panic mounting with each passing second, Bella continues to search the surrounding forest for an escape. Any small gap in the thick trees and overgrown bushes that will give her hope – no matter how wild or false – of getting out of here alive.

A breeze wisps through the meadow, her coffee-brown hair rustles across her face, and though she has but a meager human's sense of smell, Bella can imagine what her scent smells like to the sinisterly divine being only feet away from her. The way he closes his eyes and inhales, as though breathing in the most intoxicatingly delicious scent he has ever come across in all his centuries, confirms that he simply will not turn and walk away from her.

"Mouthwatering." Laurent purrs, enticed.

Her entire body tenses up and Bella prepares for the spring. Distantly, in the back of her head, she can hear Edward's voice roaring in sheer fury. Being able to use his name is not as big of a surprise as she thought it would. After all, she is about to die. Certainly, in her last moments, her last moments of life, the last moments that her heart will have to beat for him, she should certainly be able to think his name.

_Edward, Edward, Edward_.

Her hysteria increases as she looks around more desperately. Her eyes are darting about, landing on trees and leaves and branches and –

_Something happens_.

But a moment previously, time had been creeping by, each second ticking towards her death with inexorable slowness. She had never had any perception of time before, of how long a second could span, how long those seconds could span to make a minute, how long those seconds could span to make minutes that could stretch into hours, how long those seconds could span to make minutes that could stretch into hours that melted into days, how long those seconds could span to make minutes that could stretch into hours that melted into days that could blend into days…

In what she thinks to be her last moments, time moves no faster than two universes on a path to collision.

But, now, in this moment, as the very core of her being, the very center of who she is and what makes her whole is in engulfed by an internal glow that rivals the warmth of the sun she has not seen properly in over a year – time lurches to a halt, perhaps even ceases to exist.

In that moment, everything she knows – all the strings that tie her to this world, all the strings that weave together to seamlessly make her who she is – is gently but firmly snipped away. The universe as she knows it, the universe as has seen it up until this point breaks apart and mends back together, melts into nothingness and solidifies into wholeness, darkens irrevocably and brightens eternally. Her world shifts and moves and realigns, all coming to center on one point –

And that centering point can be found in the endless, enthralling liquid obsidian gaze that seems to be peering directly into the heart of her soul.

There is one gaze she can think of that is as dark and enthralling as the one that is now anchoring her to earth. One gaze that is as dark and soulful, that is as dark and expressive, that is as dark and devoted –

_Edward, Edward, Edward!_

The bubble of timelessness shatters like glass around her, the tiny pieces of her previous existence falling to the ground. Faster than she can imagine, time speeds up, each moment passing faster than she can register it, faster than she can watch it zip by.

She is aware of everything. The steel-cable that ties her heart and her soul, her spirit and being, her entire self makes her hyper-aware of everything –

Most of all, the crouched vampire whose dark-scarlet eyes are melded to her face.

"As I said, Bella – this isn't anything personal. It is a mere matter of thirst, of necessity." Laurent bears his teeth, a thin sheen of venom coating both rows of snow-white teeth. "This won't hurt one bit."

Without a sound, without a pause, Laurent springs at her and soars through the air. Time speeds up until everything else around her is a blur and in four blinks, it all happens.

Blink. Laurent crashes into her and pins her to the ground.

Blink. Laurent sinks his teeth into the exposed skin of her neck and begins to drink.

Blink. Laurent is knocked off of her broken, bleeding body and a symphony of growls louder than the thunder of vengeful gods erupts around her.

Blink. The world begins to fade as a blistering flame erupts in her throat and begins to spread like wildfire.

All Bella can do is hold on to the cord that anchors her to the world. All Bella can do is surrender herself to the warmth that manages to rival the fire raging throughout her. All Bella can do focus on the centering point of this new, strange universe that her soul now belongs to.

All Bella can think is –

_Edward, I love you_.

**~:~:~:~:~**

Imprinting.

Imprinting occurs when a shape-shifter finds their soul mate. The moment the shape-shifter sees the one they are destined to be with, they imprint. It is described as having every connection with everything else severed and instead being only connected to this world for the other person. After that, nobody else matters because you are only there for your other half, your soul mate.

The reason for imprinting is unknown. It is believed that the person on whom the shape-shifter imprints is the person with whom the shape-shifter has the best chances to reproduce with. But, it is also believed that imprinting is designed to make the werewolves stronger.

Nobody knows for certain, for imprinting is believed to be a rare phenomenon.

However, what is even rarer than imprinting, so rare that it has almost certain never occurred within memory of the Quileute tribe, is the imprinting of a shape-shifter on a being that was not human.

On a being that has _ceased_ to be human.

As long a heart beats, as long as blood runs through veins and circulates, as long as one is human and warm – it is presumed that one can be imprinted on.

However, what happens –

What happens when a heart beats for that singular, seemingly endless moment that it takes for a shape-shifter to imprint – but then stops?

What happens when blood ran through veins and circulated for that singular, seemingly endless moment that it takes for a shape-shifter to imprint – but then stops?

What happens when one is human for that singular, seemingly endless moment that it takes for a shape-shifter to imprint – but morphs into another being entirely?

What happens when one is warm that singular, seemingly endless moment that it takes or a shape-shifter to imprint – but becomes irrevocably colder than ice?

What happens, what happens, what happens –

What happens when a newly transformed shape-shifter imprints upon what is now a newborn vampire?

What happens then?

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(**Author's Note**: Well, there it is. The maiden chapter of my first voyage into Twilight fanfiction. I must admit, until now, I had always been more of a reader of this fandom than a writer. But, this idea latched hold of me as I was skimming through New Moon and absolutely refused to let go of me. In fact, several ideas latched onto me and refused to let go, the more I think about Twilight and all the possibilities.

But, one step at a time.

And, here is the first step. I would greatly appreciate if you all told me what you thought, tell me whether or not I should go on. I'll be first to admit I've no idea what I'm doing or what this fandom is like, but I had to try…

So, what do you say to a review or two, eh?)


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